Facile construction of highly efficient MOF-based Pd@UiO-66-NH2@ZnIn2S4 flower-like nanocomposites for visible-light-driven photocatalytic hydrogen production

Construction of metal-organic-frameworks-based composite photocatalysts has attracted much attention for the reasonable band gap and high surface areas to improve the photocatalytic activity. In this study, the ternary heterojunction [email protected]2@ZnIn2S4 nanocomposites were facilely prepared for the first time by a two-step method. The visible-light-promoted hydrogen production rate of 0.3 % [email protected]2@ ZnIn2S4 reaches up to 5.26 mmol g−1 h−1, which is evidently much higher than pure UiO-66-NH2, ZnIn2S4 and binary UiO-66-NH2/ZnIn2S4 composites. Such a huge improvement in the photocatalytic performance is mainly attributed to the matched band gap of ZnIn2S4 and UiO-66-NH2, and the introduction of Pd NPs into photocatalysts that broaden spectral response range and promote the photon induced charge carrier separation. This work may provide a feasible approach for the design and construction of metal-organic-frameworks-based photocatalytic materials.